Socialism and its more virulent cousin, Communism, when you come right down to it try to do the same thing with society.

They try to force... note that word, force... altruism on society. That is, you should do your utmost for others rather than for yourself.

It's the rare person that can put aside all personal gain for the good of others. But, that's what Socialism and Communism want. You should toil endlessly for the gain of others if you can. If you can't, it doesn't matter others will provide equally for you.

When people in a Socialistic or Communistic society won't produce only to see their work given to others, often others they see as undeserving, the government steps in and begins to force individuals to work for the gain of others. A dictatorship of virtue results. The most extreme form of this today is North Korea. That is the stated ideal of the state there. Of course, what is really happening is that the leadership practices in essence the role of Capitalist robber barons while the rest of society is put under the lash to act altruistically while toiling endlessly to supply the 1% at the top their lives of luxury.

Socialism and its more virulent cousin, Communism, when you come right down to it try to do the same thing with society.

They try to force... note that word, force... altruism on society. That is, you should do your utmost for others rather than for yourself.

It's the rare person that can put aside all personal gain for the good of others. But, that's what Socialism and Communism want. You should toil endlessly for the gain of others if you can. If you can't, it doesn't matter others will provide equally for you.

When people in a Socialistic or Communistic society won't produce only to see their work given to others, often others they see as undeserving, the government steps in and begins to force individuals to work for the gain of others. A dictatorship of virtue results. The most extreme form of this today is North Korea. That is the stated ideal of the state there. Of course, what is really happening is that the leadership practices in essence the role of Capitalist robber barons while the rest of society is put under the lash to act altruistically while toiling endlessly to supply the 1% at the top their lives of luxury.

That's how every heavy handed Socialist or Communist state ends up.

In a way that is why the EU is in such deep trouble only the lash has been reserved for the next generation when creating money out of thin air will no longer float the welfare state. Certainly the bureaucrats seem to have the same disdain for the average person's children's future as any robber baron.

The latest Venezuela meltdown is the government's "Bread war." The Maduro government has declared that bakeries use 90% + of the flour (controlled deliveries by the government) to make bread (price controlled by the government at below market price). Bakeries that fail to do so will be punished criminally and may be take over by the government.
Inspectors are being sent everywhere to make sure bakeries comply...

The latest Venezuela meltdown is the government's "Bread war." The Maduro government has declared that bakeries use 90% + of the flour (controlled deliveries by the government) to make bread (price controlled by the government at below market price). Bakeries that fail to do so will be punished criminally and may be take over by the government.
Inspectors are being sent everywhere to make sure bakeries comply...

In a way that is why the EU is in such deep trouble only the lash has been reserved for the next generation when creating money out of thin air will no longer float the welfare state. Certainly the bureaucrats seem to have the same disdain for the average person's children's future as any robber baron.

Are you dealing with alt facts? EU trade balance is much better than the US.

EU-28 international trade in goods with the rest of the world (the sum of extra-EU exports and imports) was valued at EUR 3 517 billion in 2015 (see Figure 6 and Table 1). Both imports and exports increased in comparison with 2014, but this increase was larger for exports (EUR 88 billion) than for imports (EUR 35 billion). As a result, the EU-28ís trade surplus increased from EUR 11 billion in 2014 to EUR 64 billion in 2015.

Are you dealing with alt facts? EU trade balance is much better than the US.

EU-28 international trade in goods with the rest of the world (the sum of extra-EU exports and imports) was valued at EUR 3 517 billion in 2015 (see Figure 6 and Table 1). Both imports and exports increased in comparison with 2014, but this increase was larger for exports (EUR 88 billion) than for imports (EUR 35 billion). As a result, the EU-28ís trade surplus increased from EUR 11 billion in 2014 to EUR 64 billion in 2015.

That's true for now. I wonder how things will flux with Brexit-stuff in time, and if Trump makes good on his pull back promises forcing EU countries to up their defense spending, some of it inevitably coming to US companies.

That's true for now. I wonder how things will flux with Brexit-stuff in time, and if Trump makes good on his pull back promises forcing EU countries to up their defense spending, some of it inevitably coming to US companies.

With defense, its a certainty. Most European nations are dependent on British and US military production and technology for a wide variety of their equipment. Even many of the European defense companies are heavily owned by US corporations.

The Venezuelan government thinks all those really long lines for things like bread and toilet paper make the country look bad. So, they've started kicking people out of them to make the lines shorter...

Really! You can't make that sort of stuff up!

Quote:

Venezuelan authorities have found a way to reduce the long lines generated by shortages at state-run supermarkets: turn away most of those trying to queue up.
To shorten the lines, police today began to enforce a directive from President Nicolas Maduro’s administration that limits consumers to two shopping days per week at government-owned food stores, said Alejandro Milano, a coordinator of Venezuela’s Food Mission.
Thousands lined up outside shops last week as an acute scarcity of foreign currency deepened shortages of everything from sugar to shampoo. The crisis led Interior Minister Carmen Melendez to deploy state security forces to ensure order.
“An ID card to buy food?” said Jose Gomez, a 32-year-old electrician, after being turned away at Bicentenario food market in central Caracas. “I guess I’ll have to go hungry until Friday.”

Police turned away many shoppers under a new system that limited access to stores based on the last digit on a shopper’s national ID card. Venezuela’s Immigration service, SAIME, also checked foreign shoppers’ papers to confirm legal residency.

And inflation? That's imaginary in the Socialist world of Maduro's Venezuela... At least with the government...

Quote:

Venezuela's new economy czar Luis Salas is tasked with controlling what is believed to be the world's highest rate of inflation, but comes to the job with an unusual perspective: that inflation does not really exist.
President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday tapped the 39-year-old sociologist as vice president for the economy amid soaring consumer prices and chronic product shortages, signaling a move toward orthodox socialism in the OPEC nation struggling under low oil prices.

"Inflation does not exist in real life," he wrote in a 2015 pamphlet called "22 Keys to Understanding the Economic War." "When a person goes to a shop and finds that prices have gone up, they are not in the presence of 'inflation.'"

You're wrong.
It doesn't work there .
Women are raped by dozens of millions every day , by the hundreds of millions of migrants legally entered there.
And the sunlight is hardly perceptible, because of the thousands of mosques towers .
Haven't you read that ?

But worth the sacrifice as in Europe.

__________________My worst jump story:
My 13th jump was on the 13th day of the month, aircraft number 013.
As recorded on my DA Form 1307 Individual Jump Log.
No lie.
~"Everything looks all right. Have a good jump, eh."
-2 Commando Jumpmaster